Promoting new businesses on social services is all the rage these days. Ask Twitter. Today, Foursquare is getting into the act by adding a new section called “Recently Opened” to its iOS app (no word yet on Android updates). The hope is that you will try out some new venues within Foursquare and potentially like them…and continue going there.
Sounds great for a new business, right? It’s good for Foursquare, too, because it can now build relationships with venues at a very early stage, hoping that they stay on the platform for the future.
Here’s what the team had to say about it:
Want to find the latest and greatest in your neighborhood? With today’s iPhone update, we’ve added a one-tap way to find “Recently Opened” places in Explore. Just tap the search icon and scroll down to select it.
As we mentioned before, Foursquare is settling into its current path as a discovery and exploration company quite nicely, now giving businesses the opportunity to be proactive by getting onto the service. Basically, if you open up a coffee shop, Foursquare wants you to immediately list it on the service. It’s smart, and very Yellow Pages-like.
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare’s CEO, has gone on record as saying that he considered selling the company, but he views the service as the “Best local search tool on the planet.”
We dove deeply into Foursquare’s new approach with Explore, and I called its new rating system for venues “magic.” I stand by that, as the experience I’ve had with the app has continually gotten better with each update.
Will users and businesses agree? It’s not just about check-ins anymore, folks. The real business has only just begun. Oh, and just so you know, Crowley said at the beginning of the year that half of its users are outside of the U.S., so keep that in mind when you wonder how the company will do in the future. He sat down with us in June to discuss re-inventing Foursquare:
[Photo credit: Flickr]
Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
Dennis Crowley is a co-founder of Foursquare. Previously, he co-founded Dodgeball, a network of the same nature which sold to Google in 2005. He has been named one of the “Top 35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is...
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